In a taste of what the fall 2012 campaign will look like, Florida Representative Allen West has announced that up to 80 House Democrats are secretly members of the Communist Party.
Now that the economy is doing better, it seems that the Birchers are surfacing, to be followed closely by the birthers, I suppose.
Communism Is Alive and Well in Congress According to Allen West – Politics – The Atlantic Wire.
According to the Chicago Tribune, “It is not uncommon for suspects in federal criminal cases to be detained until trial.”
via Bail denied for ‘sextortion’ suspect – chicagotribune.com.
Texas justice of the peace J. Kent Adams made racist comments — like asking a black mother if she was on welfare and expected the government to pay her fine. And Adams called defense attorney Henry Nguyen “boy” and told him that the school records Nguyen subpoenaed to defend his client were “none of his (expletive) business.”
That’s just Adams being a dick.
But after Nguyen complained to the Texas State Commission on Judicial Conduct, judge Adams tried to persuade a prosecutor to sign an affidavit saying Nguyen’s claims were false and tried to pressure another prosecutor to file perjury charges against Nguyen.
Abuse of his office earns Adams a “Bite Me.” But when the State Commission on Judicial Conduct merely issues a public admonishment — the lowest form of public punishment the Commission can levy — they can Bite Me, too.
In a case is before the Texas Court of Appeals, officials from Alpine, Texas, claim that criminal penalties stemming from their violation of the state open meetings law have had a “chilling effect” on their free speech.
Sean Jordan, representing the state Attorney General, countered that the purpose of the law is not to curtail free speech by elected officials, but to require the disclosure of that speech to the public. “These laws are designed to ensure government officials don’t get into a practice of deliberating in private,” Jordan said.
Lawyers for state, cities clash over open meetings penalties – Houston Chronicle.
John McWhorter, the linguist and “cranky liberal Democrat” complains in the NY Daily News that prominent African-Americans keep insisting that “Nobody talks about race.” McWhorter says everybody talks about race. Sometimes they even talk about racism, but even that isn’t the point. What African-Americans want is to convince white America that African-Americans are still living with racism every day — and that we need to fix the problem.
McWhorter concludes that the conversation has begun, but the world won’t change overnight: “We are, because of Trayvon’s tragedy, engaged in another chapter in America’s ongoing conversation about race. Some are learning a little, but we’ll have no mysterious revolutions in thought. For all those waiting for a conversion, that’s the bad — but honest — news. We’re stuck with imperfect conversation.”
Andrew Cohen writes in the Atlantic: “Congress has no constitutional authority to punish people who don’t want to have health insurance, Paul Clement argued last week before the United States Supreme Court. This week? The heralded attorney is arguing, to another panel of federal judges, that Congress has plenty of constitutional authority to punish people who don’t want to marry someone of the opposite sex. Last week, Clement defended states’ rights and labeled as ‘unprecedented’ the federal health care policy. This week, he says that Congress can dictate terms of a federal marriage policy over the objections of states which have legalized same-sex marriage.”
Altogether now: “Bite Me!” And our apologies to $2 whores everywhere for the unwarranted comparison to conservative attorney Paul Clement.
via The Losing Argument for the Defense of Marriage Act – Andrew Cohen – National – The Atlantic.
The FTC has hit two robocall scammers Paul Navestad and Christine Maspakorn with fines of $20 million and $10 million respectively. Which is nice, I suppose, but the Do Not Call Registry has been in operation since 2008 and my telemarketing calls haven’t gone down. Have yours?
Scammers Hit With Massive $30 Million Fine Over Deceptive Robocalls | News & Opinion | PCMag.com.
Rep. Allen West (R-FL), a high-profile conservative and one of two African-American Republicans currently serving in Congress has issued a statement lambasting Florida authorities for their handling of the shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin.
West says in part: “From my reading, it seems this young man was pursued and there was no probable cause to engage him, certainly not pursue and shoot him.”
I’m no expert in Florida law, but “stand your ground” surely doesn’t mean “pursue and shoot.”
Allen West On Trayvon Martin Case: ‘This Is An Outrage’ | TPM Livewire.
Yup. Florida’s new laws against voter registration “include extremely burdensome administrative requirements, unreasonably tight deadlines for submission of completed forms, and heavy penalties for even the slightest delay or mistake. These restrictions are so unnecessarily harsh that they forced the League of Women Voters and Rock the Vote, among other groups, to shut down voter registration programs in Florida — even as voter registration rates have continued to decline in the state.”
The Florida laws were crafted by Republicans, passed by Republicans (Republicans control both houses of the legislature) and signed by the Republican governor.
But it’s not just Florida. Republicans in other battleground states are passing new laws to restrict voter registration and suppress voter turnout. The Brennan Center says, “Of the 12 likely battleground states, as assessed by an August Los Angeles Times analysis of Gallup polling, five have already cut back on voting rights (and may pass additional restrictive legislation), and two more are currently considering new restrictions.”
Not content to lie about Obama to beat him in November, Republicans have now gone into the business of fixing the election. And, oh yeah, they can Bite Me.
When you put ambitious entrepreneurs in charge of schools, and remove meddlesome bureaucratic oversight, what happens? They steal.
For example, Hugh C. Clark, founder of a charter school in Philadelphia, stole $522,000 from the taxpayers plus $339,000 from a bank.
Is he just the rare “bad apple?” Not really. Philly.com says “[Clark’s New Media charter] school is the fourth Philadelphia charter school whose administrators or board members have faced federal fraud charges in the past decade. . . .
“Sources have said that New Media is among at least 18 [Philadelphia] area charter schools that have come under federal investigation since 2008.”
Anyone who thinks that charter schools don’t need close government supervision can Bite Me.